Pokemon Sun and Moon; Starter Evolutions Revealed!

Well, it’s October 4th everyone! And as is expected, the new Pokemon Sun and Moon trailer was released today, with the focus being on the evolved forms of the starter Pokemon. Here’s the trailer in case you haven’t seen it yet:

So what are they? Well, for Rowlett, its first evolution is an archer style owl called Dartrix. This is known as the Blade Quill Pokemon, is a Grass/Flying type and maintains the Overgrow ability from is earlier form. Either way, it’s design makes it quite clear the leaked final form for Rowlett is likely an accurate one:

Litten on the other hand involves into Torracat, the ‘Fire Cat’ Pokemon. This one again has much the same typing (Fire) and ability (Blaze) as its pre evolved form, though it now has a strange bell like object called a ‘flame sac’ attached to its neck. Which is apparently how it generates flames for its moves.

Here’s a picture showing this Pokemon more clearly:

As you can see, it vaguely hints at the ‘leaked’ design, albeit a lot less than the other two did.

But then we get Brionne, the ‘Pop Star Pokemon’ and a design that pretty much screams ‘the final form will be the mermaid thing from the leaked artwork’. I mean, look at it:

It’s definitely going for that look, isn’t it? Either way, it has the same typing and ability as its earlier form. Which likely hints that all three starter Pokemon won’t change typing as they evolve. Kind of like in generation 2 really.

So that’s one interesting reveal. But this is a Pokemon Sun and Moon trailer. And you know what that means, right?

Yeah, the starter evolutions aren’t the only reveal today,

Oh no, it also turns out that Mega Evolutions are returning. So were you one of those people who hoped they were gone from Sun and Moon? Well if so, you’re wrong. They’re returning in this game like most people expected they would.

In addition to that, it seems like the ‘Ash-Greninja’ thing from the anime is now game canon as well. Basically, if you transfer over a special Greninja, it has the new ability Battle Bond. This triggers its new form when an opponent Pokemon faints, and likely also increases its stats significantly in the process.

Like it’s speed, which apparently makes it ‘move too fast to see’.

So yeah, the anime canon is now sort of merged with the game canon too.

Festival Plaza is a thing here too. This is a special area where you can play with other players and do things like tackle missions together. Or just battle and trade with one another Or do various errands for NPCs. Either way, these all give you Festival Coins, which can be spend at various buildings in the plaza.

Such buildings include shops you can get buy items cheaply at, bouncy houses for Pokemon to train in and dye houses to change the colour of your clothes.

Interestingly, the trailer shows what seem like Team Skull grunts in this area, which implies that the villain team and Aether Foundation might be involved in some of these festivities as well.

Finally, there’s an interesting feature called Poke Pelago. What’s this? Well, it’s called ‘a paradise for Pokemon in PC boxes’, where Pokemon stored there can go exploring, play on athletic equipment and do other fun activities. In other words? It’s to make you feel less bad about the Pokemon you stuffed in a PC box. In case you were worried about that in past games.

But that’s not the only interesting thing you can do here. Oh no, wild Pokemon can visit these paradises, and then decide to join your party if they take a liking to you. This provides for yet another way to get rare wild Pokemon like Skarmony or Scizor, which is a pretty neat bonus (assuming they’re not common in the Alola region).

Yet there’s still more! Because yes, it also turns out there’s going to be a demo for this game! Available from the eShop or official Nintendo website starting from October 18th, this demo will introduce players to the Alola region and feature Ash-Greninja as the main character. Even more interestingly, said Greninja will be possible to transfer from said demo to the full game, meaning that the demo is an easy way to unlock a powerful new Pokemon for your generation 7 party!

So that’s pretty cool. Probably a massive target for hackers and data miners, but pretty cool none the less.

And that just about wraps it up this time. We got some starter evolutions, some new features and the announcement of a demo. Well, until next Friday (October 14th anyway), when the next trailer and announcements for the game will roll around.

But what do you think? Did you like any the reveals from today? And what features and new Pokemon do you think will be revealed next week?

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This is a first. They're showing off the second evolution, but not the 3rd. The 3rd is the most important in my choosing. I mean how could I say no to a fire cat? Well, if it was fire/fighting I could.